Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 136
by Little PandaBestowing Upon You the Realm (18)
[This chapter is locked]
Time rewound to fifteen minutes ago.
When suddenly hearing Yu Ye’s story, Xu Jiao was naturally shocked, but she quickly calmed down.
Because what Yu Ye said matched exactly with her previous speculations. If in the first world, Xu Jiao still found it strange why the female protagonist developed feelings for her and why she developed such extreme mentalities of unrequited love, then by the second and third worlds, even a fool would notice something was wrong.
Just like now.
Yu Ye had clearly shown wariness and distrust towards her before, appearing as someone who would never want to get closer to her in this lifetime, so why did she suddenly become bewitched and fall in love with her?
The answer was simple.
From Xia Jingzhe to the current Yu Ye, from beginning to end, the person Xu Jiao had encountered was the same one. So the obsession was her, the love was her, and the unrequited feelings were also her – this female protagonist’s consciousness, born from countless tragedies from her pen, had been following Xu Jiao from the start.
Because she wanted to pull Xu Jiao down from her high pedestal, wanting to have an equal conversation with this person who created her, she needed to obtain her love, to make her truly see herself. Naturally, when failing, all those accumulated grievances would transform into obsessive fixations.
However.
There was still a major loophole in Yu Ye’s words.
It was the System.
Xu Jiao was pulled into this world by the System, so did the System know Yu Ye, and what role did it play between the two of them? Was it a high and mighty corrector who manipulated hearts and watched over the human world, or a gentle deity who listened to and fulfilled wishes? Or was it an existence with other purposes?
When Xu Jiao stood up from the bed, she pretended to be angry on the surface, but in her mind, she immediately confronted the System.
“What do you think about what Yu Ye said?”
The System didn’t play dead, answering her with the same calm voice, showing neither the concealment of exposed truths nor anger at being betrayed by a partner. Perhaps this was the characteristic of its mechanical voice system, so regardless of what it thought, Xu Jiao had no way of knowing.
Unless it chose to reveal it.
It knew what Xu Jiao was suspecting, and after a moment of silence, said to her: “She made a wish to me, I heard it, and coincidentally, her wish aligned with my original purpose of creation, so I fulfilled it, nothing more.”
Xu Jiao voiced her question: “What wish? To fill the novel’s world with harmony and love? You’re trending toward making all authors write happy endings. It’s fortunate you weren’t around in Shakespeare’s era, or wouldn’t a genius of literature have been stifled in the cradle? Human civilization thankfully avoided a great regret.”
The System understood her sarcasm but didn’t respond to this long speech.
Either from disdain or tacit agreement.
Xu Jiao continued: “Was her wish just to meet me? Or something else? Coincidentally, I’ve read some similar stories about novel protagonists who weren’t content with their assigned fate, and after questioning their creator, they wanted their own identity in the real world, so they replaced their creator.”
The System didn’t answer directly, only mentioning: “But she’s fallen in love with you now.”
Xu Jiao put aside the feelings that had developed between her and the female protagonist. She put herself in the protagonist’s position and thought about it, easily understanding the previous female protagonists’ thoughts. If she hadn’t been firm enough and never wavered before, now she would have been the one in a passive position.
“So what? Love often doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, especially when faced with matters of life and death and difficulties.”
The System calmly said: “It’s different.”
It said: “These female protagonists from your writing, from the moment their consciousness was born, were destined to fall hopelessly in love with you. This was predetermined – they would either live forever in the mediocrity and pain of their roles, or once they gained their own consciousness, they would inevitably fall in love with you.”
Xu Jiao sighed: “Look at Yu Ye standing before me now. We’ve essentially had relationships in two worlds, yet even so, I still can’t guarantee that her love for me is one hundred percent genuine. You’re just a system that doesn’t understand love – where does your confidence come from to make such statements?”
“What? Do you have extensive experience in matters of the heart?”
System: “…”
Hearing Xu Jiao’s pointed mockery, it remained unmoved, simply stating calmly: “You’ll understand eventually.”
Xu Jiao hated its calmness and disliked its fortune-teller-like predictions. Except for initially questioning her coldheartedness by simulating human emotions, after she began to have feelings, the System gradually lost its presence, as if having completed its purpose.
When it was obviously active, Xu Jiao had suspected it, and now that it was silent, her suspicions became even harder to dismiss.
The System knew of Xu Jiao’s suspicions about its behavior. It stopped speaking. Faced with such an unreasonable system that ignored both gentle and harsh approaches, and had forcibly bound her to this book world from the start, Xu Jiao had no immediate way to deal with it.
However.
If she couldn’t handle the System, perhaps Yu Ye would be a new breakthrough point.
So Xu Jiao initiated the foot-warming scene. Night is when people’s rationality is at its weakest, when emotions take over. Although Yu Ye, having experienced many storms and accompanied her through countless worlds of life and death, might not fall for her tactics, at least Yu Ye was now a living person.
As long as someone is human, their words will always have flaws.
But before the questioning could begin, a small accident occurred.
After that “you’re not capable” was uttered, Xu Jiao keenly sensed the atmosphere in bed freeze slightly. Though Yu Ye still pressed her feet against her abdomen to warm them, her fingertips were stroking the position of Xu Jiao’s right heel, gently caressing it, mixing a hint of dangerous aura into the ticklish sensation.
After a good while, Yu Ye’s amused voice emerged from the darkness, coming from the direction of Xu Jiao’s feet:
“Oh? I’m incapable?”
Having interacted across several worlds, once knowing that Yu Ye and those female protagonists were the same person, Xu Jiao considered herself very familiar with her, especially in that aspect.
This voice, this tone, clearly indicated the prelude to an impending storm about to break loose on this bed.
Xu Jiao quickly tried to put an end to this atmosphere, swiftly interjecting: “That’s not the point—”
Yu Ye interrupted her: “But I think this is the most important matter, Your Highness.”
Her hand slowly traced upward from Xu Jiao’s heel, reaching her calf. Xu Jiao realized her current position was like having stepped into a muddy trap. Though stepping in had been easy, how could leaving be as simple as before?
Yu Ye held her leg firmly, and noticing her attempt to break free, suddenly said: “Don’t move.”
Xu Jiao paused, then heard her next words: “Your feet aren’t warm yet. Be good, or you won’t sleep well tonight.”
Xu Jiao thought to herself that after dropping such a huge bomb earlier, she definitely wouldn’t sleep well tonight, so stop with this act.
She stopped moving, and Yu Ye, taking it as compliance, returned to their previous topic: “I’ve always felt that many of my previous actions were wrong, not considering your feelings. Back then, I didn’t understand true love, so I didn’t understand respect either.”
“But Your Highness, taking my restraint and self-control as a sign of inability in that aspect is quite insulting.”
“Does Your Highness want this subject to immediately prove her capabilities?”
While speaking, her fingertips had already wandered to Xu Jiao’s forbidden zones. The ticklish sensation crawled like ants from her ankle, winding up her calf, then all the way to her thigh, and somehow mysteriously reached her tailbone through nerve endings, making her entire spine go weak.
Xu Jiao didn’t know how she had managed it, but she found herself unable to muster any strength. Yet she didn’t want to surrender like this, seeing how Yu Ye was trying to dodge the questions in bed, she wouldn’t allow it.
However.
While originally intending to discuss matters calmly, after having experienced this person’s countless techniques, her soul seemed to have remembered things it shouldn’t have, becoming quite… addicted to the taste.
Xu Jiao wasn’t someone who denied her desires. Since Yu Ye wanted to use her methods to divert Xu Jiao’s attention, then Xu Jiao would turn the tables and lead Yu Ye into her own rhythm at what she prided herself most in.
Xu Jiao sat up, actively moving toward Yu Ye.
Meanwhile, her other hand searched under her pillow. Recently, besides her previous self-defense weapon, she had added a red feather with the most resilient tip. She felt this item had an element of surprise, and if usually hidden in her hair, it was much more convenient than those pure gold hairpins with rounded tips.
Unexpectedly now, this feather had taken on responsibilities it wasn’t meant to bear.
In the pitch-black night.
Under the cover of darkness, with the multiple layers of bed curtains blocking everything, it seemed all wantonness could be hidden beneath.
The more concealed things were, the more obvious the psychological stimulation and physical pleasure became. Even slightly heavy breathing and low whispers could magnify one’s thoughts and that ambiguity countless times.
Xu Jiao used the feather to lightly scratch Yu Ye’s chin: “Proving capability isn’t necessary, but I’m more curious – when you first realized you were just a character in a book, with your identity arranged by another person, were you extremely angry?”
Yu Ye lifted her chin, unable to escape the feather occasionally brushing past her face, collarbone, and neck. She narrowed her eyes, her fingertips already finding Xu Jiao’s waist sash. Suppressing her breath, then releasing it slowly, she finally managed to say: “Yes.”
Xu Jiao boldly slipped the feather down inside her collar.
Seeing this move, Yu Ye raised her hand to snatch away the feather teasing her, but Xu Jiao had anticipated this, raising her wrist high, lowering her head toward where Yu Ye’s breath fell. Because the room was too dark to see clearly, she could only speak guided by feeling, her tone falling inadvertently on Yu Ye’s neck:
“I won’t stop your actions if you don’t interfere with mine.”
“Isn’t Minister Yu very capable? Didn’t you want to prove yourself?”
Her laughter carried a hint of teasing.
As if certain that before Yu Ye could act, she would definitely be the first to make the other person lose control, this was like a race – whoever reached the destination first would be the winner, and the winner would be listened to.
Yu Ye could only endure that ticklish sensation, also suppressing the waves of emotion stirred up by the other person. By now she could clearly feel her back’s clothes completely soaked with sweat.
All induced by Xu Jiao.
But it didn’t matter—
If the Crown Prince had Zhang Liang’s strategy, she had her own ladder over the wall.
Yu Ye could ignore whatever else Xu Jiao said about her, but mocking her inability and challenging her capabilities in this aspect – she thought, she wouldn’t be human if she kept enduring.
Originally, she had planned to make this time gentle for Xu Jiao as an apology, but since her Highness didn’t like the slow-boiled frog approach (idiom – “溫水煮青蛙” meaning a gradual approach) and preferred passionate collision, she was extremely willing.
Xu Jiao was now kneeling astride her, legs at her sides, upper body pressing down on her through the blanket. Yu Ye’s hands had already reached for Xu Jiao’s waist, but remembering something, she moved back toward Xu Jiao’s ankle.
Her night vision was much better than Xu Jiao’s.
Her speed was also several times faster.
Almost at the moment Xu Jiao’s feather haphazardly explored her collar, she had already removed the silent bell from the other’s ankle, along with its long silk ribbon.
The intertwined breathing in bed grew heavier with each sound.
Finally, it became impossible to distinguish who was who.
After a long silent struggle, a sound finally emerged from under the covers, though very faint and muffled, like a bell sound heavily concealed.
Xu Jiao lost her strength, unconsciously letting go of the feather. Now that Yu Ye had regained the upper hand, the disheveled Regent pressed her back into the soft bed. Biting her lip until hearing the bell sound growing increasingly brazen, almost audible to the palace servants outside, she finally raised her hand to pull Yu Ye’s clothing sash, softly panting:
“Stop… stop…”
Too embarrassing.
Yu Ye actually put that bell in!
Put it in that kind of place!
And it made sounds when it met water!
Ah, she knew this wasn’t a normal gift!
Yu Ye leisurely moved her wrist, supporting herself at Xu Jiao’s side with one hand, no longer appearing disheveled, like a general victorious on the battlefield, smilingly asking:
“Didn’t Your Highness say earlier that I couldn’t perform?”
“So let’s try something that works.”
Xu Jiao’s knee hollows were covered in induced sweat. Having been delicately nurtured for years, her entire person now had sweat-soaked clothes, yet a faint fragrance spread throughout the bed chamber – who knew what Yu Ye had been using on her daily.
She heard the bell’s sound, could feel it winding through the nine-bend corridor, and a fear of the other going too far swept over her. She instinctively tried to reach for the ribbon holding the bell, but Yu Ye used the silk ties from the bed curtains to gently bind her hands to the headboard.
Now restrained, Xu Jiao tried to curl up to avoid that terrifying stimulation, speaking softly to Yu Ye: “I… you’re capable, Minister Yu, Lord Yu, you’re too capable—”
“Take this off.”
“What if the ribbon breaks? We’d have to trouble the imperial physician to make a midnight visit, why bother?”
Hearing her words, Yu Ye seemed inspired: “That makes sense. I find this bell sound pleasing – why not let it ring forever like this?”
Xu Jiao: “!”
Not at all!
That assumption was terrifying!
She moved her wrist, trying to struggle, but Yu Ye held her hands down and leaned down again. With her good night vision, she easily spotted the feather fallen by Xu Jiao’s hand and smiled again.
“Almost forgot, Your Highness seems to like this fine thing.”
Before Xu Jiao could speak—
In the next moment, Yu Ye gave her a direct lesson in returning like for like (idiom – “以彼之道還施彼身” meaning to use someone’s own methods against them).
Every touchable and untouchable place on Xu Jiao’s body was equally blessed by that feather’s rain, and finally, Yu Ye, still unsatisfied, brought the feather’s soft tip to that already overwhelmed place.
Xu Jiao’s waist arched like a fish on a cutting board, jumping once, stretched straight, curling the silk bedding beneath her toes. Her eyes widened for a long while, unable to suppress her voice, instinctively letting out one word from her throat:
“No—”
No more.
Stop.
Yu Ye kissed her lips, swallowing all those sounds in time.
Xu Jiao made muffled sounds, trying to speak, and Yu Ye raised her hand to touch her face. Though meant as tenderness, she felt Xu Jiao’s face full of tears, softening her heart for a moment, raising her head to say:
“Wasn’t Your Highness originally wanting to ask me something?”
“But now in such a pitiful state, can you still remember what you wanted to say?”
Xu Jiao grabbed the ribbon at her wrist, eyes wide in the darkness, and after this wave passed for quite a while, curved her lips and struggled to regain her rationality. When Yu Ye was at her most mentally pleased, she asked her previous question:
“Did you… previously… want to kill me?”
Seeing she could still maintain clarity, Yu Ye’s eyes showed some approval, as if to reward Xu Jiao for her sacrifice, and slowly reached for her outer clothes that had been removed earlier by the bed.
Inside seemed to be a string of agate beads that someone had given her to curry favor, polished extremely smooth and round. She had originally kept them intending to give them to Xu Jiao, and now seemed to be a good opportunity.
She pulled the completely wet ribbon connected to the bell and responded, “Of course.”
Xu Jiao’s breath suddenly paused.
Unknown whether due to her words or her actions.
Following this, Yu Ye smiled and came to kiss her cheek: “Not just before, but now too—”
“However, now I want you to die in my bed.”
As soon as the words fell, the bell sound under the covers abruptly stopped.
Xu Jiao hadn’t recovered from her previous state when Yu Ye’s sudden movement caused her to be swept up by this terrifying wave again, momentarily seeing white.
She thought Yu Ye had finally abandoned her previous frightening thoughts.
Unexpectedly, something cold touched her.
Xu Jiao shrunk upward, hearing the unchanged amusement in Yu Ye’s voice:
“Your Highness seems to have many more questions to ask—”
“How about this.”
“Someone gave me a string of agate beads. For each one Your Highness takes, I’ll answer one question, absolutely holding nothing back. What do you say?”
Xu Jiao: “…!”
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